Once upon a Swinub
by Snoaz
Summary: Because sometimes, even Blue can be wrong. Oldrivalshipping.


**A/N: **

**Firstly: a Happy New Year to you all! To kick 2010 off, I bring you some fluff and mild crack- don't ask how I reached the idea for this fic, because it's a long story. My thanks goes out to _Ibuberu _for pointing out what was wrong with this story, and helping it change from nothing into something acceptable.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.  
**

Once upon a Swinub

"_Aaaaah_!"

The high-pitched scream resounded throughout the young, broad-leaved forest; it ricocheted against frail birch trees and robust oaks, and carried its tones to the outer regions of the forest. Seconds after, its echo could be heard faintly but clearly in the distance; like a melody sung by wood-nymphs, it rose hair-necks and filled hearts with wonder at the same time. Disrupted by the sudden outburst of noise, a few Starly flew up from their nests high in the trees; loose feathers and broken twigs alike tumbled downwards, falling on the ground in a scattered gathering of old forest materials.

A short distance away, Green abruptly looked up from his training; he knew that voice. Without further ado, he returned his Pokémon in their Pokéballs, and made his way to the source of the noise in a quick pace.

Blue didn't scream for nothing - training could wait when there was rescuing to be done.

*

Mere minutes later - he was extremely thankful that it was only a young forest they were in; it made the searching that much easier - he had found the brunette: she was standing with her back to him, in the middle of a clear space in the forest.

"Blue!" he shouted, slightly out of breath from running but relieved all the same. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

He hurriedly walked over to her, looking around. Nothing seemed out of order at first sight. "Why did you scream like that? What's the emergency?"

"_That_." The girl pointed to a shadow in the bushes situated on the other side of the clearing, not so much as looking at him. The fact that she hardly acknowledged his presence was as vague a sign as any; her gaze remained fixed on the shadowy bushes in front of her, eyes not even blinking_._

Green couldn't really be bothered by the lack of greeting, and instead followed her finger. Once his eyes found the source of her consternation, though, disbelief filled his body. That couldn't _possibly _be the reason for her screaming… Still, Blue's face remained as serious as ever; not a single indication of gleeful joking was apparent in her transfixed eyes.

He looked sideways again, face wearing a deadpan expression. "_That_ is why you shrieked?"

"Yes." Her eyes still didn't leave the bushes in front of her; it was as if she was scared that if she looked look away, the simple serenity of the forest would snap - replaced by something he couldn't quite fathom. He crossed his arms with a sigh, feeling ridiculous for so much as acknowledging her fear.

"Blue. That's a _Swinub _you're looking at."

"I know that!" the girl answered, looking away from the bushes and fixing her eyes at him for the first time; he could see something close to indignation on her face. By the way she folded her arms, Green assumed that he had wounded her pride by doubting her knowledge of Pokémon like that. _Like there weren't more pressing matters to think about._

"My question is," began Green with still no emotion showing on his face, "why you were shrieking like that _especially _since you seem to know perfectly well that it's only a Swinub?"

"Only… _only _a Swinub?" Blue drew heavy breaths, a hand on her breast. She suddenly seemed to be on the verge of losing control. "Do you know what that thing _does_?"

"Eh… basically eating, sleeping and now and then an ice-beam – "

"Exactly!" Blue interrupted loudly. "Ice beam! An ice-attack!"

"…"

Green eyed Blue with a look of mingled exasperation and worry, thinking she had finally lost it. Then, as if in a flash of understanding, comprehension showed in his face.

"Has this by any chance something to do with the Man of Ice?"

Blue huffed. "Of course it has. So much for quick catching up."

"I'm sorry if my ability to look into your psyche has momentarily let me down, but I can't keep track of the rapid developments going on there," he replied in an irritated voice. "What is it? Do you now have, besides the regular bird one, also a phobia for _ice _Pokémon?"

Blue looked at him with a hurt expression. "You talk about it like it's nothing."

Green regarded her for a moment and then sighed, as though he had reached the conclusion that her agony was sincere for a change. "Right. I'm sorry if you feel that way, but – is that a reason to shout every time you catch sight of an ice-type Pokémon?"

"Not just any ice-type…" she whispered, looking at him with huge eyes. She waited a few seconds – to add to the dramatic effect, he knew – and then said in a low voice, "It's Pryce's."

Green looked at her. And looked – but didn't see any hint of mockery.

"You think it's… Pryce's," he repeated. The boy tried hard to keep his voice from sounding all too sceptical, but knew at the same time it was a hopeless case altogether - acting had always been an area where Blue did much better than him.

Said brunette nodded solemnly, though, and blinked up at him in complete and utter silence. There was nowhere a sign of lying; and that meant that she _actually _thought that_…_

Green fell quiet, absorbing this new turn of events. If it had been a joke, it would have been farfetched enough already; but this was beyond belief. Still, there was no use in flat out denying her claim; he needed to think of a way to show her that all that was absolute nonsense, while at the same time not angering her too much.

(Seeing as he was a person with a lot of self-knowledge, he realised that this was going to be hard; staying reasonable in a discussion when he _knew _he was right was something that was never going to be his forte, he was afraid.)

"What proof do you have to assume it's Pryce's Swinub?" he said eventually, going for the subtle way of reasoning instead of the confrontational attack.

"Assume? I don't assume anything, I _know _it's his!"

"Yes, well – what reasons do you have to _know_ such a thing?" Green corrected, biting back the sarcasm.

"I have lived under the same roof as that thing for six years. You'd _think _I would recognize it when I see it, don't you?"

"I suppose, but – "

"There's no but!" Blue loudly interrupted, waving her arms in agitation. "Its scent, its snout, the – the _disgusting _way it eats…"

Green looked to his right and saw the Swinub in question nibbling peacefully on a white mushroom. "That's very… remarkable indeed," he said, eyebrows up to his roots. Even a chronic pessimist would have difficulty spotting anything dark in the scene in front of them.

"So," Blue asked, ignoring the unbelieving look on his face, "what are you going to do with it?"

Green whipped his head around, momentarily forgetting about his composed demeanour. "Ex_cuse_ me? If you're asking me to put an end to that Swinub in any way, you can forget it – "

"Of course not, I'm not a brute," Blue interrupted impatiently, though there was a definite look of disappointment on her face. "Just – just scare it away."

"You expect me to wave a branch and shout idiotic things so it will lift its heels?" His eyebrows, which had moments before taken on their normal form again, resumed their previous height.

"Well, perhaps the shouting alone will suffice…" The girl regarded the Swinub with a doubtful eye. "But on second thought, waving a stick might just do the trick. So keep that one in." Her gaze travelled through the bushes around the clear space, as if to search for one.

"Blue, you missed the sarcasm," he replied in a flat tone. "You don't really think I'm going to so much as raise my voice? That Swinub hasn't done anything wrong but unintentionally scare the wits out of you, and…" He paused when he saw the look on her face, and could feel a laugh (unbelieving, helpless) start forming in his throat - the absurdity of the situation was becoming almost unmanageable. "You _don't_ think it was unintentionally? You actually think it did it on _purpose_?"

"It's Pryce's Swinub," Blue responded with feigned calmness. "There's no such thing as coincidence and undesigned."

The girl shot the leaf-eating Pokémon a dark look before adding, "It could even be here for revenge - it knows I rebelled against him and took part in his downfall." She then abruptly whirled her head to face him, and pressed with a voice too shrill to be normal, "You should be on your guard too, Green! It'll probably know you had a hand in it as well!"

Green regarded the mushroom-eating Pokémon with one skewed eye. Then, he said, "Right, it indeed looks like it's about to attack us. It also looks, without a doubt, intelligent enough to recognize you as one of the Masked kids and the two of us as persons who fought against his _master._" He purposely stressed the last word; the irony he felt couldn't be kept inside anymore.

Blue put her hands on her hips, frowning slightly. "Pokémon are more than capable of recognizing people, Green."

"Yes, but I don't think this one is."

They both studied the snout-Pokémon for a moment, who merrily sniffed at a few leaves and closed his eyes as though to enjoy the sun's warmth; the ultimate picture of innocence.

Then - without warning - a clear voice suddenly filled the clear space, shattering the serenity of the forest in the blink of an eye.

"Swiny! There you are!"

Both Green and Blue whirled around to face the source of the sound, but the boy who came running in didn't pay them any attention; he brushed straight past them, towards the bushes at the other end of the clear space. There, the Swinub, who previously had been dozing off, scurried towards the young guy, and jumped into his outstretched arms. The boy hugged the Pokémon tightly; both seemed to squeal with happiness.

Blue's mouth, meanwhile, hung open; utterly speechless, she stared at the reunion scene being played out in front her - both Oscar and Disney-worthy in terms of heart-wrenching sweetness.

Green looked from the boy to the girl next to him, feeling a sense of amusement he probably shouldn't feel; but it couldn't be helped, really. To see her being wrong like that, for once in her life, was almost worth the delay in his training.

(_Almost._)

"I think that Swinub belongs to that trainer, Blue," he drawled, the smirk he felt not showing in his face. (He wasn't like the girl next to him, after all.)

"Wh-what? No, it can't be, I mean – " The brunette trailed off when Green stepped forward and prodded the youngster's shoulder.

"Kid, is this your Swinub?"

"Huh?" The boy turned around to face Green, then broadly smiled. "Yes! I thought I had lost him, but… oh, I'm so glad I found him again; Swiny and I have been together our whole life already!"

Green looked at Blue. "You hear that?" She nodded dumbfounded. "He's definitely older than six years, Blue."

"Perhaps he just looks old for his age?" the brunette offered in a hopeful tone.

Green and the boy looked at each other, then said in unison, "No."

"What is all this about my age, anyway?" the young trainer asked, the Swinub still in his hands. "And what were you doing standing around Swiny?"

"Oh, let's just say that my friend here had taken a special interest in it, but for the wrong reason. Speaking of which – " he nodded the boy good-bye and led Blue away from the clear space, towards the village – "you owe me one."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Blue, who was still looking thoroughly startled because of the rapid change of events - or, more accurately speaking, because of the fact that she had been proven _wrong _about something - snapped her head away from the Swinub behind them, and fixed her eyes on the boy next to her.

"Well, all this stuff about 'knowing for sure' and 'no room for coincidences and assumptions'… Seems, though, like even you don't know for sure sometimes."

The brunette looked sideways at him, expression mocking and voice dismissive. "_Thank _you for pointing that out, Green. I really hadn't figured that out myself already."

"In that case you'll also realise that you've made me abandon my training for nothing; you might even say that you had me _worried _for no reason." A barely visible smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I don't think that it would be too much to ask if you bought me a drink, hm?"

"_What_?" Blue faced him with fierce eyes, ready to say something in protest – before the implication of Green's words reached her mind.

"Oh…" She closed her mouth and smiled, all traces of scorn and anger suddenly gone. "Well, alright then. But only because I'm in a good mood - you're in luck, you know that?"

"Perhaps," Green mused softly, and together they walked out of the forest.


End file.
